When one confesses to an act, one ceases to be an actor in it and becomes its witness, becomes a man that observes and narrates it and no longer the man that performed it. Jorge Luis Borges More Quotes by Jorge Luis Borges More Quotes From Jorge Luis Borges Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone. Jorge Luis Borges sandbuiltstones The tango is a direct expression of something that poets have often tried to state in words: the belief that a fight may be a celebration. Jorge Luis Borges fightingexpressionmay Being an agnostic means all things are possible, even God, even the Holy Trinity. This world is so strange that anything may happen, or may not happen. Being an agnostic makes me live in a larger, a more fantastic kind of world, almost uncanny. It makes me more tolerant. Jorge Luis Borges maymeanworld Soccer is popular because stupidity is popular. Jorge Luis Borges stupiditysoccer Dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty; more abominable is the fact that they foster idiocy. Jorge Luis Borges oppressioninspirationalfacts I have preferred to teach my students not English literature but my love for certain authors, or, even better, certain pages, or even better than that, certain lines. One falls in love with a line, then with a page, then with an author. Well, why not? It is a beautiful process. Jorge Luis Borges why-notfalling-in-lovebeautiful Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I'd rather boast about the ones I've read. Jorge Luis Borges boastpagespride May Heaven exist, even if my place is Hell. Jorge Luis Borges hellmayheaven I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. Jorge Luis Borges naturereadingbook I have committed the worst of sins one can commit... I have not been happy. Jorge Luis Borges worstcommittedsin I saw all the mirrors on earth and none of them reflected me. Jorge Luis Borges sawsmirrorsearth The original is unfaithful to the translation. Jorge Luis Borges unfaithfuloriginalitytranslate Sometimes, looking at the many books I have at home, I feel I shall die before I come to the end of them, yet I cannot resist the temptation of buying new books. Whenever I walk into a bookstore and find a book on one of my hobbies — for example, Old English or Old Norse poetry — I say to myself, “What a pity I can’t buy that book, for I already have a copy at home. Jorge Luis Borges temptationhomebook Of all man’s instruments, the most wondrous, no doubt, is the book. The other instruments are extensions of his body. The microscope, the telescope, are extensions of his sight; the telephone is the extension of his voice; then we have the plow and the sword, extensions of the arm. But the book is something else altogether: the book is an extension of memory and imagination. Jorge Luis Borges menmemoriesbook We accept reality so readily - perhaps because we sense that nothing is real. Jorge Luis Borges acceptingrealreality For me, beauty is a physical sensation, something we feel with our whole body. It is not the result of judgement. We do not arrive at it by way of rules. We either feel beauty or we don't. Jorge Luis Borges judgementbodybeauty The future has no other reality than as present hope, and the past is no more than present memory. Jorge Luis Borges memoriesrealitypast Time can't be measured in days the way money is measured in pesos and centavos, because all pesos are equal, while every day, perhaps every hour, is different. Jorge Luis Borges differenttimeway When I wake up, I wake to something worse. It’s the astonishment of being myself Jorge Luis Borges astonishmentbeing-myselfwake-up I gazed at every mirror on the planet, not one gave back my reflection. Jorge Luis Borges self-improvementmirrorsreflection
